Football’s just a simple game of numbers, right? Plays called, downs made, yards gained, points scored and wins recorded. In Super Bowl XXXVIII, 71,525 fans in Houston’s Reliant Stadium watched to the end as the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers in an epic struggle, 32-29. They saw the longest scoreless stretch in history – 0-0 through the first 26:54. Then, in just the last 3:06 of the first half, 24 points were scored, with the Patriots taking a 14-10 lead into the halftime over the Panthers.

And while the fans were witness to the questionable halftime antics of the celebs, those in attendance missed what many of the nearly 140 million home viewers in 229 countries and territories really tuned in for…the battle of the Super Bowl commercials.

Commercial time for Super Bowl XXXVIII cost advertisers a cool $2.3 million for 30 seconds. To put that in perspective, according to Advertising Age, for Super Bowl I in 1967, which ran on CBS and on NBC, a 30-second spot cost about $42,000 ($239,167 when adjusted for inflation). Twenty years ago for Super Bowl XVIII (the year Apple ran the history-making spot which introduced the Macintosh PC), a 30-second spot cost about $450,000 ($833,584 in current dollars). With 57 paid commercials in this year’s broadcast, it’s estimated that CBS could bring in $138 million.

For the big marketers, the Super Bowl is a game of big numbers – number of viewers, ratings share, cost per thousand – with the unanswered question being, was the $2.3 million per commercial (on top of the up to $1 million per spot production costs) worth it? After all, the 10 most-watched programs of all time are Super Bowls. And talk over the water cooler on Monday morning only adds to the value of advertising on the Super Bowl. So were the spots memorable?

Take this quiz to test your recollection of Super Bowl XXXVIII’s commercial fare. Answers are below.

The Super Bowl Product/Brand Test:
1) What computer brand was Muhammad Ali selling?
2) Which beverage was sold by a man wearing a Scottish kilt?
3) What company used an alien to sell its particular service?
4) What car brand caused kids to get their mouths washed out with soap?
5) What beer used the humor of getting a bikini wax?
6) What fast food brand featured a very jealous Miss Piggy?
7) What service was sold using a Willie Nelson doll?
8) Which snack food had grandma and grandpa battling it out?

If you knew the answers, the television spots have done their job – to create top-of-mind awareness, although your ability to recall some of the brands may be based on seeing the spot since the Super Bowl. Certainly the advertisers hope to make an impact on the most important number – their bottom line – with these spots and more during the next major televised sports event, the NCAA basketball tournament in March.

In some cases, Super Bowl commercials yielded immediate results. According to comScore Networks as reported by the online Research Brief from the Center for Media Research, a number of television advertisers' Web sites posted dramatic spikes (200% or higher) in visits within 15 minutes of their ad appearing on the air. These included Cialis.com, Dodge, WarnerBros.com, SonyPictures.com and Pepsi-iTunes.

And the viewers’ favorite commercial? comScore Survey Solutions reported that the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdale-wannabe donkey spot took the prize for the most-liked Super Bowl advertisement in integrated research.

Quiz answers: 1) IBM; 2) Pepsi/Sierra Mist; 3) FedEx; 4) General Motors/Chevrolet; 5) Anheuser-Busch/Bud Light; 6) Pizza Hut; 7) H&R Block; 8) Lay’s.

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